NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
BMC Fam Pract. 2011 Oct 20;12:115. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-12-115.
The QUALICOPC (Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe) study aims to evaluate the performance of primary care systems in Europe in terms of quality, equity and costs. The study will provide an answer to the question what strong primary care systems entail and which effects primary care systems have on the performance of health care systems. QUALICOPC is funded by the European Commission under the "Seventh Framework Programme". In this article the background and design of the QUALICOPC study is described.
METHODS/DESIGN: QUALICOPC started in 2010 and will run until 2013. Data will be collected in 31 European countries (27 EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) and in Australia, Israel and New Zealand. This study uses a three level approach of data collection: the system, practice and patient. Surveys will be held among general practitioners (GPs) and their patients, providing evidence at the process and outcome level of primary care. These surveys aim to gain insight in the professional behaviour of GPs and the expectations and actions of their patients. An important aspect of this study is that each patient's questionnaire can be linked to their own GP's questionnaire. To gather data at the structure or national level, the study will use existing data sources such as the System of Health Accounts and the Primary Health Care Activity Monitor Europe (PHAMEU) database. Analyses of the data will be performed using multilevel models.
By its design, in which different data sources are combined for comprehensive analyses, QUALICOPC will advance the state of the art in primary care research and contribute to the discussion on the merit of strengthening primary care systems and to evidence based health policy development.
QUALICOPC（欧洲初级保健的质量和成本）研究旨在评估欧洲初级保健系统在质量、公平和成本方面的表现。该研究将回答以下问题：强大的初级保健系统需要具备哪些要素，以及初级保健系统对医疗保健系统的绩效有哪些影响。QUALICOPC 由欧盟委员会在“第七框架计划”下资助。本文介绍了 QUALICOPC 研究的背景和设计。
方法/设计：QUALICOPC 于 2010 年启动，将持续到 2013 年。数据将在 31 个欧洲国家（27 个欧盟国家、冰岛、挪威、瑞士和土耳其）以及澳大利亚、以色列和新西兰收集。本研究采用三级数据收集方法：系统、实践和患者。将对全科医生（GP）及其患者进行调查，提供初级保健过程和结果水平的证据。这些调查旨在深入了解全科医生的专业行为以及患者的期望和行动。本研究的一个重要方面是，每位患者的问卷都可以与其自己的 GP 的问卷相关联。为了在结构或国家层面收集数据，研究将使用现有的数据源，如卫生账户系统和欧洲初级保健活动监测器（PHAMEU）数据库。数据的分析将使用多层次模型进行。
通过其设计，将结合不同的数据源进行综合分析，QUALICOPC 将推进初级保健研究的最新进展，并为加强初级保健系统的优势以及循证卫生政策制定的讨论做出贡献。
